Crime

Major cyber attack planned for Monday

Companies around the world are bracing for even more fallout from the biggest cyberattack ever. The massive ransomware attacks that started Friday locked people out of their computers, and demanded hundreds of dollars from owners before they could regain control.

The attacks exploit outdated versions of Microsoft Windows that is problematic for major companies that don’t automatically update their systems.

According to the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol, the virus hit at least 150 countries bringing the total number of victims to 200,000. Hospitals, universities, manufacturers and government agencies in the U.K., China, Russia, Germany and Spain were all affected.

Now, experts say the scope of the problem could expand as people go back to work Monday and turn on their computers, mainly because even though a U.K. security researcher managed to stop the spread of the virus, hackers have let loose new versions that cybersecurity organizations are trying to stamp out.

At least one strain of the ransomware has proven especially vicious, where when it infects one computer within a network, it can spread to all the computers in that network within seconds. For example, if a coworker opens an infected PDF attached to an email, soon everyone in your office could be under attack.

Global Companies under attack

FedEx: The company said it was “experiencing interference with some of our Windows-based systems caused by malware” and was trying to fix the problems as quickly as possible.

Nissan: The automaker in a statement said “some Nissan entities were recently targeted” but “there has been no major impact on our business.”

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